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Nigerians don't trust the government to respond to emergency calls. So they created apps instead.

Innocent Chizaram Ilo

October 24, 2020 |

Rest of World |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria

Fearful and distrustful of corrupt and abusive police forces, Nigerians by the thousands have downloaded locally developed mobile apps like Sety and Aabo to call friends for help during abductions or other emergencies. These first-responder apps feature panic buttons that alert contacts or people nearby during an emergency. The app makers do not share usage data, but users say they feel safer by having such apps available if they are harassed by the police or in need of protection from an attack.

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Contact tracing apps: Worth the hype?

Ed Butler

October 22, 2020 |

BBC |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Switzerland

Contact tracing apps have received a lot of attention since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but researchers caution they should be used in conjunction with other tactics and not be relied on to help on their own. However, an early study has indicated that even when only fifteen percent of the population downloads a contact tracing app, infection rates are reduced by eight percent and deaths are reduced by six percent.

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New app helps Inuit adapt to changing climate: ‘It's time for the harpoon and computer to work together'

Anna Kusmer

October 15, 2020 |

The World |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Canada, Flaherty Island, Nunavut

The Arctic Eider Society, an environmental and social justice organization based in Nunavut, developed an app called SIKU that allows users to enter real-time data on conditions in the arctic. Inuktitut hunters use the app to alert others to hazardous ice conditions and observations about wildlife and vegetation. The app is funded by private foundations as well as federal and indigenous governments and has over 6,000 users. Users maintain intellectual property rights of their data and the app respects traditional knowledge by encouraging indigenous communities to merge old ways with new technologies.

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How to Bring Care to Mental Health Emergencies

Whitney Bryen Quinton Chandler

October 04, 2020 |

Oklahoma Watch |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Oklahoma

Oklahoma mental health and police agencies supply free tablets to police departments, enabling officers summoned to a mental health crisis to connect on the spot with a licensed mental health professional. The telehealth solution has virtually eliminated forced hospitalizations in Claremore, where officers use the tablets on multiple 911 calls daily. The tablet program, also used in Oklahoma City, serves as a temporary fix while state officials debate more permanent ways to limit potentially violent and unhelpful interactions between mentally ill people and police with little training in their care.

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In Rio, Mapping Gunshots Can Backfire

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

September 29, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

Crime-tracking mobile apps give millions of Brazilians crowdsourced data on urban violence, alerting people to dangerous places and filling gaps in government data on shootings, robberies, and other risks. But apps such as Fogo Cruzado (“Crossfire”) and Onde Tem Tiroteio (“Where There's a Shooting”) offer statistically crude glimpses of crime, distorted by media and racial biases that one expert blames for myths about the risks people actually face.

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Purple Keys, Part 2

Monica Pelliccia Elena Ledda

September 25, 2020 |

Are We Europe |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: France

A mobile app called App-Elles was used 5,400 times during the early months of the pandemic by either the survivors of gender-based violence or witnesses and helpers trying to connect the survivors to assistance. Created by French singer Diariata N'Diaye, the app lets users designate three "protectors" chosen in advance to receive alerts. Once alerted, they can summon help via text message or other discreet means of contacting women who are trapped at home with their abusers. The app is among other examples of digital survivor-aid services developed for women during the pandemic.

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Hi, There. Want to Triple Voter Turnout?

Tina Rosenberg

September 19, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Vote Tripling is a get-out-the-vote strategy where volunteers set up outside of polling places, a safer pandemic option, and ask voters to text three friends with a reminder to vote. A randomized trial showed turnout was nearly 8 percentage points higher among people receiving texts. The message to vote holds more weight coming from a friend and it empowers those doing the texting, who also receive an election day reminder to send the texts. To be most effective, the technique requires a busy polling place where proximity to the polling place is legally allowed.

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Can't Pay Your Rent? ‘Lawtech' Is Here to Help.

Kriston Capps

September 18, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Soon after the federal government imposed a second moratorium on evictions, SixFifty, a tech firm, released Hello Landlord, a mobile app for tenants to generate a legally compliant form letter invoking the law with their landlords to block a threatened eviction. In the first nine days after its release, the app was used by more than 200 people. The free service is an example of what's called lawtech: technology giving access to legal information to individuals and small businesses. Hello Landlord asks 19 questions that serve to automate what a tenant's lawyer might do – if only the tenant could afford one.

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Smartphones saving the rainforest

Julie Ball

September 15, 2020 |

BBC |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Brazil

Rainforest Connection makes a smartphone app that is part of a system using solar-powered phones in the rainforests of Brazil, Sumatra, Costa Rica, and Peru to stream audio of suspected illegal logging. This system, using recycled phones, enables the capture and shutting down of logging operations. In Brazil, about 100 loggers have been arrested and a large share of the rainforest has been protected, though many loggers there and in other countries still evade detection. This app is one example of innovations in use around the world to extend the lives of smartphones to benefit environmental conservation.

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What Kenya can teach its neighbors — and the US — about improving the lives of the "unbanked"

Kelsey Piper

September 11, 2020 |

Vox |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Kenya

Mobile banking in Kenya has increased economic mobility for families living in poverty. The mobile money system is not connected to bank accounts, making it accessible to the overwhelming majority of Kenyans who don't have bank accounts but do have cell phones. Mobile banking allows deposits and withdrawals as well as transfers, and has allowed families to save money to use when their income, often from farming, takes a hit thus creating a security net for themselves and allowing them to receive funds from friends and family. Savings allow families to meet basic needs and access medical care if necessary.

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